and when you pray....

And When You Pray…5“And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.6But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father whoisin the secretplace;and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathendo.For they think that they will be heard for their many words.8“Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” (Matt. 6:5-8 NKJV)​ As with almsgiving, Jesus characterizes the prayers of the religious leaders as showpieces for the express goal of gaining the praise of men. Actions may have the appearance of obedience, but the motive for our actions is everything.

Jesus counsels us that prayer is a private act, a private communication. The essence of relationship with God is the oneness of the individual and God. This unity must precede all other relationships. Prayer, the intimate conversation between man and God, is the basis for establishing and maintaining that relationship. How many times did Jesus leave the crowds and the disciples to go alone to pray? Did He not live in a state of communication with God? Paul’s phrases, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks…,” (1Th. 5:16-18) come to mind. Rejoicing and thanksgiving surround prayer, and they are all experienced at the same time. Jesus modeled this, and yet He still went alone to pray.

Think of an intimate conversation with someone, desiring to focus on their words, their tone, their body language, and come to an understanding of what they are communicating, honoring them with your full attention and without distractions. You listen, setting aside your own agenda and listening with open mind and heart. This is the other side of prayer. This is the still silence after the outpouring of what we have to tell God. This is patiently waiting for His response. (Note that there is definitely a place for community prayer, as Jesus showed us many times, and as was so appropriate in Acts 4, mentioned below.)

God does not require vain repetitions any more than He requires the flesh of bulls or the blood of goats (Psalm 50:12-13). He wants us, and that requires our full attention, for He must be our focus. Again, what He asks is everything, even our thoughts.

God desires conversation with us. First, we must put our relationship in perspective. This is the one to one relationship of a created being coming before the Creator Being, acknowledging the relationship and, in meekness, saying, “Not my will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). We seek guidance for reconciliation of God’s intention and the present reality.

Placed in Eden, Adam and Eve were to multiply and bring under dominion the world beyond Eden’s borders. The model of the Garden was intended for the whole earth. The gulf between intention and reality has widened to such a degree that we must allow God to come to us. Living outside of Eden, the Kingdom of Heaven, is hard. We are given the opportunity to restore the Kingdom on a smaller scale, to internalize the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the goal of prayer – to restore unity between self and God, between flesh and Spirit, between self and other.

Jesus’ parables of the Kingdom of Heaven give glimpses of the nature of this Kingdom. It looks like grace, the unmerited favor of one toward another. This is modeled in Jesus, who did not condemn the sinner, but only those who claimed to have no sin.

Notice that Jesus makes the same promise to the one who prays in private as He did to the one who gives in private: “and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” As with charity, private prayer receives a reward. Again, the reward will be in the coin of heaven and appropriate to the individual and the circumstance.

This concept of God responding to prayer strikes down the religion of deism, according to which God, after finishing the work of Creation, abandoned it. Deism holds that God is Creator, but that we can expect nothing from Him. Prayer presupposes that God is present and is still involved with His Creation. The theistic world view, exemplified by Jesus’ life and teachings, contrasts sharply with Deism. Prayer is based on God’s nearness and his accessibility. This is an important concept, because capitalism is based on the Deistic view of God – we must be preoccupied with providing material goods for our security and happiness, because a transcendent God does not do this. Many of Jesus’ parables and teachings are negated by this transcendental belief system. Belief in prayer also rules out pantheism, the belief that God is an impersonal power permeating everything. Prayer in the Bible is based on a personal relationship directly with God.

Let us look at a few of the many examples of prayer’s effects on the reality of this world. The story of Hezekiah in Isaiah 37:1 – 38 is one of many examples of placing our burdens upon God and He removes the burden. Sennacharib of Assyria had conquered all of the nations before him and he sent a message to Hezekiah saying that Jerusalem would fall just as the other nations and their gods had fallen to Assyria. Hezekiah placed the message before God and he prayed for God’s intervention. “Then the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses – all dead.”Acts 4:13-31 shows the effectiveness of prayer when the authorities forbid Peter and John and their followers from even speaking the name of Jesus. When this was reported to the elders, they all prayed in one accord concerning the threat, asking for boldness that they might go and speak God’s word and that He would heal and show signs and wonders. “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke with boldness.”

Two prayers - private and public, individual and group - and both are effective. The sincerity of prayer, and the unity of the one with God or of the group with each other and God, are critical elements. Each example shows a challenge, a prayer, and the divine response.

God knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In our praying, we acknowledge what He already knows. We arrive again at the first Beatitude. With our prayer, we acknowledge our insufficiency and God’s full sufficiency.

And perhaps this is the key, the reason for prayer: coming into agreement with God. Next article